Totally awesome

Honestly one of the more boring clips I've seen. Guys talking, talking, then some more talking, then no waves.

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marno said..
Honestly one of the more boring clips I've seen. Guys talking, talking, then some more talking, then no waves.

You know there is a scroll bar down there don't you

Impressive skills

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marno said..
Honestly one of the more boring clips I've seen. Guys talking, talking, then some more talking, then no waves.

+1

well i was impressed anyway. If there was waves, these boys would have completely ripped them apart. i think thats the point of strapless freestyle, you don't need perfect waves to do some cool stuff. Its all about making best of the conditions given. It seems to me most people commenting here would be sitting on the beach saying I'm not going out today because the waves aren't good enough.

It wasn't that long ago I started a thread about strapless freestyle competition. Maybe it has now come of age and we will see this new discipline as a format in our local competition.

I get it, but I don't get it.

Kitesurfers should not talk ever and there was zero surf in that vid but ze skills are very impressive.

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djt91184 said..
Kitesurfers should not talk ever and there was zero surf in that vid but ze skills are very impressive.

Aaahhhh do u think it's wise to use you're pin number as a username along with the selfie as profile pic

That was awesome! So good to see a strapless video every once in a while. Oh and that guy with the dreadlocks shreds.

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flyingcab said..
That was awesome! So good to see a strapless video every once in a while. Oh and that guy with the dreadlocks shreds.

Which one?

well only in Europe would this be an event - but hey the guys got paid so good on them

not sure it does anything for the credibility of the sport in the surfing world

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brucex said..
well only in Europe would this be an event - but hey the guys got paid so good on them

True, because in Europe they mostly have no waves .

p.s. To be honest I don't know why boards for this haven't evolved more, if I was really passionate about this style I would have created a board that resembles a large light wakeskate (or similar) with small fins on each end. I'm sure these guys would do even crazier stuff then. Right now it kind of reminds me of people riding a Naish Sky Pirate on flat water instead of a Twin Tip...

maybe they can only afford one board ??

So you need surf to ride a surfboard?

But you don't need a wake to ride a wake board.... Or even a wake skate

This is very interesting to see responses, my travels to Merimbula and some wave nationals revealed that there was a distinct trend to what we call:
'Dick Tricks' - very small wavelets and punting moves off lately.

When I watched Airton at Merimbula throwing some of these moves down they are clearly defying logic and are impressive, it seems since then these boys are improving even more with such skills, perhaps 'Really big 'Dick Tricks' .

Airton is a pretty down to earth and excellent lad, he and these other boys like Kiahi (another great lad) are really just fully into this strapless culture of surfboard riding. I think its a testament to the sport and the diverse range of possibilities. Twini with straps, booties, strapped kiteboards, strapless kiteboards and ye old glass surfboard.

There is definitely a culture of dissing strapped riding but I like to ride both ways and was riding strapless some 10 years ago, my last few years I have been back on straps except for those light wind surfboard beach days. As a surfer I am not throwing down air-reserve, alley-oops and massive airs, but on a strapped kiteboard I can pull out some aerial moves at least and feel like I'm free, so why not? I don't want to limit my riding to anything just because is fashionable at the time.

These legends (the boys) just motivate me on what is possible, they certainly widen the gap on degree of difficulty, and as long as we are looking after the comradeship of the sport, getting competition on the move, its gota be good. I love to watch these tricks and mess around trying (much lower DD) on the surfboard.

I would not like to see it just go totally strapless Dick Trick though, the king of the surfboard and waves has to be determined when riding waves rail to rail down the line surely? And you know they will be right there doing that too.

Keep it happening I say they are great ambassadors for our sport, and you can just have a competition anywhere with some chop, thats kitesurfing - total brilliance. Riding a 2ft wave like its the wave of the month - radical.

Daz

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Spark said..
So you need surf to ride a surfboard?

But you don't need a wake to ride a wake board.... Or even a wake skate

Hardly a logical comparison to me as Wakeboards and Wakeskates don't actually rely on a "Wake" to function or serve their perceived purpose, they both rely on being pulled by something, but lots of tricks are done without the wake. A surfboard really needs to sit in a Wave/ Curl if it is to be considered "Surfing" (imo and likely most others).

This being said, obviously you can ride a surfboard wherever you want, but I hardly see the point of throwing away performance by riding a board shaped to perform best in the curl of a wave if you don't have to... (hence my comment about people riding a Naish directional instead of a twin tip on flat water).

p.s.
People are free to do as they wish, some might just ride a board because they like it (which is totally understandable) but if you are thinking about what is the best craft to progress what they are doing here (in this video) it's hardly going to be a surfboard with massive fins and a pointy nose that you can only land/ ride best in one direction... It would be like top skaters still riding single kick skateboards (can be done, but wont be the most progressive tool for the job).

2cents done.

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Jedibrad said..
maybe they can only afford one board ??

I know you're trolling Brad, please try harder .

I was more than impressed ,.........didn't spot anyone wearing boardies over their wetsuits!

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Prawnhead said..
I was more than impressed ,.........didn't spot anyone wearing boardies over their wetsuits!

hahaha. Europe is getting "hipster" now .

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sir ROWDY said..

Prawnhead said..
I was more than impressed ,.........didn't spot anyone wearing boardies over their wetsuits!

hahaha. Europe is getting "hipster" now .

You mean boardies are being replaced with beards?

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KIT33R said..

sir ROWDY said..

Prawnhead said..
I was more than impressed ,.........didn't spot anyone wearing boardies over their wetsuits!

hahaha. Europe is getting "hipster" now .

You mean boardies are being replaced with beards?

You're on it.

Stuey Martin made the best board ever for this style of riding.. the little orange mutant. (Ezza)

Ok… i'll but more thought into it

You see the a same same but different thing with snowboards

Years ago makers went to a lot of trouble to make a nice sidecut, sharp edge and camber…. but maybe 5% of punters use these attributes...

Now days you can actually buy a board that goes like **** to suit your trickery style….

Maybe kiteboarding should follow suit???

It's like watching an early kite movie with board off's I thought we were past that ???

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hookworm said...

It's like watching an early kite movie with board off's I thought we were past that ???

Full circle brother.



@Jedibrad, it's was exactly the same thing with Windsurfing in the 90's, everyone bought all this race gear when they couldn't even race or they actually didn't actually want to.

I'm sure boards will evolve if people actually want to do this stuff more and you will eventually be able to buy boards that would be horrible for riding on a wave but will work far better for this style of kiting. I can see this happening especially in the Euro markets as most spots are rarely blessed like us in AUS with good waves and as such makes little sense to ride a surfboard around for 100 sessions in the hope that 1 of those has some slop to ride.

I had this in 2007 with the sky hooks, ridden strapped or unstrapped bu the sky hooks were great - that seemed progressive to this type of ridding?

Are you trolling Dazza?

p.s. Typing on an Iphone is horrible, my last post reads even more incoherent than usual.

why wasn't Leo at this event?